. >>> we're less than a month away from massive layoffs and cuts in spending at the pentagon and elsewhere. nancy cordes is on capitol hill. >> reporter: good morning. they call this the sequester and both signs long predicted it could harm the economy if the cuts are allowed to kick in. instead of working together to do something about it they resorted to the blame game a month before the deadline. republicans may be the party of spending cuts but on monday house speaker john boehner insisted the looming sequester was the president's idea. >> the president first proposed this sequester in 2011 and insisted that it be part of the debt limit agreement. >> reporter: unless congress acts the package of cuts worth $1.2 trillion will start to kick in march 1st, taking a $55 billion bite out of this year's defense budget and $27 billion from domestic discretionary spending. according to the congressional budget office more than 1 million jobs are at risk. defense secretary leon panetta had this warning. >> we are going to weaken the united states and make it much more difficult to respond to the